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How can a derived class call a method from a base class? Other classes should not have access on the other hand.

My situation:
I have a base class, in which I wrote a private method to register some values.

private void register(string param1, int param2){//...}

I did this to allow subclasses to register different stuff. The problem is, that a derived class cannot access private methods or fields of a base class. That makes sense to me, since private means PRIVATE.

I don't want to make the method public because other classes should not be able to call this method.

Can someone provide a solution or guide me towards a better design?

Jason Aller
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Noel Widmer
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    make it `protected`? – AlexD Nov 07 '14 at 12:50
  • Oh man! I always thought protected would disallow accessing from other packages. (That is in Java only I guess...) Write it as the answer and I will accept it. :D – Noel Widmer Nov 07 '14 at 12:53
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    No, thats `internal`, you can even combine the two - `protected internal` which allows access from derived classes and any class in the same assembly. – Danny Varod Nov 07 '14 at 12:56
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    @NoelWidmer The same answer appeared in the meantime, so perhaps it does not make much sense to make another one. But thanks anyway! – AlexD Nov 07 '14 at 12:59
  • The 'private' modifier will make the variable only available within the scope of that object. In this case, the base class. The 'protected' modifier will allow derived classes to access the variable. – James Shaw Nov 07 '14 at 13:05

1 Answers1

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When you declare something private, only the class that defines it can access it. Not even derived classes

What you need is protected

When something is declared as protected it can be accessed by any derived class while staying hidden from other non-related classes

dimlucas
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